MANILA – Kristina Knott did not only win a Southeast Asian Games gold medal. She also reset the national and biennial meet’s record in the women’s 200-meter event.
The Filipina-American runner clinched the gold medal in the event after clocking 23.01 in the finals last night at the New Clark City in Capaz, Tarlac.
Knott’s gold medal performance resets the national record in the women’s 200 event set by Filipina-American Zion Corrales-Nelson who tallied 23.32 in US NCAA earlier this year.
Aside from that, Knott’s clocking was also a new SEA Games record for the event, erasing the 23.3 seconds of Supavadee Khawpeag of Thailand in 2001.
Knott, however, fell short of the qualifying standard of 22.80 seconds to hopefully become the second track and field player to qualify in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Filipino EJ Obiena earlier qualified to play in next year’s Olympics in Tokyo, Japan in the men’s pole vault event.
Yesterday, Obiena set a SEA Games record in men’s pole vault with his gold medal feat of 5.45 meters./PN
